An Exploration of Literature, Technology, and Children

By Brianna Barriga-Sardinas, Team Letters From Felix: A Virtual Reality

During the Fall 2013 quarter at the University of California Santa Barbara, Brianna Barriga-Sardinas, Michelle Brodney, Andrea Liedloff, Kelley Oorloff, Tiffany Park, Asha Thompson, and Nathalie Vera of Professor Alan Liu’s English 149 class formed a team called Letters From Felix: A Virtual World Tour in order to explore the relationship between children’s literature, technology, and the impact that connecting these two subjects has on a child. The team recreated their own version of virtual literature based on the children’s work Letters From Felix: A Little Rabbit on a World Tour by Annette Langen. Group members designed a brand new children’s character, a cat named Olé, who travels around the world in the same fashion that Felix does in Langen’s work. However, instead of Olé writing letters, the little cat has blogs that are all connected to one another where he documents the world experiences he has obtained through traveling. The team had the goal to make this digital story more interactive and educational than traditional forms of children’s books, perhaps with the result of children’s literature being taken a bit more seriously. Additionally, the group wanted to discover what was lost and what was gained in transferring a physical story into a digital one. In the future the team wishes to see the effects that the physical copy and the digital recreation has on children's and whether they are positive or negative, though this could not be accomplished fully in the time they were allotted and would require more resources that may not have been possible in this setting.

The entire project idea and implementation occurred in approximately six weeks, with in-class meetings taking place about twice a week and with additional team meetings also scheduled at various times. The team members met multiple times in both these settings but also kept a lot of their communication and documentation within a private Facebook group. This online way of communication was particularly ideal as the group was rather large and the Facebook group page saved all communication posted, which was useful in going back to older information and tracking progress.

Within this short amount of time Letters From Felix: A Virtual World Tour and their ideas changed rather drastically. In the first few meetings, the team initially wished to use many of Langen’s ideas, including but not limited to her main character and the countries he visited. Langen writes of a stuffed plush bunny named Felix that has gotten separated from his child owner in an airport. Once Felix is lost in the airport he ends up traveling to many places all over the world and sending letters back home to his owner. Each group member was to be assigned a country from Langen’s work and create blog posts that were tagged with their location. The format for these posts was initially going to be made on the free blogging website Tumblr.  Each member would do research on their location and choose what to present on each location, with subjects ranging from places of interest, cultural information, economic information, political information, and more. All the posts would exist on one group Tumblr blog with a main page of sorts on the Tumblr blog that would have served as an introduction to the characters and the story. One last part of the introductory page would display a map with click-through links on each country to the blog posts that were relevant to the country to further illustrate the traveling aspect of the story.  Asha Thompson volunteered to draw her own version of Langen’s rabbit Felix which the team would then later incorporate in each of their Tumblr posts when relevant and on the main part of the blog. Tiffany Park and a few other members also planned to create a stop-motion video that would show Felix traveling to each country in consistent visual motion, something that a book cannot exactly replicate. This video would have been posted on the introductory section of the Tumblr to display the gist of the travels as well.

Most of this information was then presented to their peers and their professor/advisor Alan Liu. The team’s peers offered helpful advice and suggested possible additions to the project which inspired the project to move in a slightly different direction and aided in accomplishing the goal of becoming more interactive. One extreme change that the peer feedback created was the change of the base of the digital recreation from Tumblr to WordPress. As this project is primarily intended for children, peers worried that Tumblr would not be a safe environment. A few team members that were familiar with Tumblr agreed with this evaluation once it was called to attention, as the tag system on Tumblr is extremely unpredictable can lead to images/videos/etc. that are not age appropriate for children. Another suggestion was made as an idea to help increase interactivity and, in a way, connect the digital world to the physical one. A peer suggested that there be images that were printable, such as a passport and stamps for the passport that corresponded to each location, so the reader could go on the trip with Felix. This suggestion also inspired an idea to make a printable version of Felix himself and clothes/outfits that were culturally relevant to each location so the reader could dress Felix in different attire.

While these suggestions were vital in helping propel the group forward, the most influential suggestion was made by the team’s advisor and professor Alan Liu. With concerns about the copyright issues of Langen’s work, Liu proposed that the team instead create their own character and let the project be inspired by Langen’s Felix rather than replicate him directly. This recommendation ultimately provided the team with more freedom and ability to be creative. From here, the team members decided to form a new character and become more flexible with the locations that they were presenting to the readers. Through collaborations the members decided to make the main character that reader would be following a cat named Olé, inspired by their college UCSB and the chant that is sung at sport’s events. The story would follow Olé who has gotten lost in an airport and is now travelling to different cities around the world, eventually resulting in his return back home to UCSB. The locations were also altered slightly with each group member choosing whether to keep a location that was in Langen’s book or dedicate their posts to a new place. The locations and group members were assigned as the following: Tokyo, Japan (Michelle Brodney), New Delhi, India (Andrea Liedloff), Rome, Italy (Brianna Barriga-Sardinas), New York City, United States of America (Tiffany Park), London, England (Kelley Oorloff), Dublin, Ireland (Asha Thompson), and Lima, Peru (Nathalie Vera). Once the locations and the base of the project, WordPress, had been decided on each member created their own blog for their specific location. This differed from the original Tumblr setup because although WordPress does allow multiple tabs on one blog, the group thought it would be easier and more exciting for the readers to virtually travel to each country by travelling to each blog.

WordPress, although the safer alternative to Tumblr, was found to be a bit more complicated for some group members. WordPress has both a free version and a paid version, which when compared with one another shows that the free version appears to be quite lacking. The group members could not drastically alter the HyperText Markup Language (HTML) codes the same way on WordPress that they could on Tumblr. The widgets that users are able to add to their WordPress blog were also found to be confusing at times. Some ways that the posts were set up on WordPress seemed to be less user friendly, especially if the intended users are children. The problem with the HTML coding resulted in yet another fairly major change for the group as their original plan for an map with click-throughs could not be accomplished neatly with WordPress’s restrictions, forcing the team members to rework their project again.

In order to solve this new problem, the group members brainstormed until Michelle Brodney found the website MapBox. Finding this solution was very important to the group as their idea for the interactive map was significant because it aided in the interactivity aspect and helped to really transform their recreation from one that was physical to digital.  MapBox is a website that allows users to customize a map to whatever perspective they wish to take and publish it on the web. The user can pinpoint a certain place and add a link to the pinpoint that one can assign a small symbol to. MapBox also allows the user to have an area that one can write in and shows all the pinpoints. The map can be made to appear zoomed in/out, at different levels such as a satellite view, with different color schemes, and much more. Due to the ease with which all of these things can be accomplished, especially compared with the difficulty that WordPress was presenting the team with, it was decided that MapBox would take the place of a main WordPress blog. It was also decided that somewhere on each team member’s blog there would be a click-through link for the user to go “home” which would lead to the MapBox, allowing the users to easily travel to another country/blog. The description on the MapBox is entitled “Olé’s Grand Adventure” and reads as follows: “Olé ends up on an adventure of a lifetime. Olé travels all over the world in search of a way back home to UCSB. During the search Olé learns many new and interesting facts about many different cultures! Each place Olé traveled to is marked on the map, click on each marker to follow Olé’s magical adventure! Also, for added fun click on the link below to print out your own personal UCSB passport and collect a token from each place Olé visits! You can find the passport on the home marker in the map.” Below this description there is a list of each location which when clicked moves to wherever this is on the map and then links to each location-specific blog. All of this together serves as the interactive homepage for the project which the team knew was vital for really emphasizing the virtuality of the re-imagined story.

As mentioned before, each person created their own WordPress blog that contained whatever information they wished to share with their reader. Uniformity amongst the blogs was not a huge emphasis. Each blog was required to have a link to the homepage/introduction, links to the printable passport, a link to their location’s passport stamp, some reference to Langen’s work as inspiration, and a picture of Olé if possible. Additionally, each person was to write their posts as if they were writing as Olé talking/writing to his readers directly. Writing as Olé in first person was another way to help ensure the interactivity and make the reader feel as if they were truly a part of Olé’s adventures. Other than these aspects, the team was able to create their blogs in whichever way they saw fit. This resulted in a variety of blog themes, all of which are selections from themes already on WordPress and some of which are only available to be chosen if purchased. Another result of this was different emphasis on different medias and information on each location.

Michelle Brodney’s WordPress on Tokyo, Japan was set up in a way where the reader is initially shown a main page that includes another small introduction mixed in with posts while also displaying tabs at the top of the page with specific sections about Tokyo. The main page has a list of information but it is mostly visual with audio and video that links to outside sources. Her tabs cover the topics of clothing, food, and a way to for the reader to print out their passport stamp. The food and clothing sections contain some writing but are still mostly visual. The style in which Michelle writes is very informal in order to maintain a relationship with a young reader and replicate the same kind of characters usually found in children’s literature.

Andrea Liedloff’s WordPress on New Delhi, India shows a different blog theme layout than Brodney’s with more of a focus on the list of posts than the tabs. However, she still employed the use of an about tab where as Olé she incites the readers to explore the blog and learn about India. Liedloff includes almost all media possible by using text, photo, and video/audio. She touches upon the subjects of Indian cultural festivals/celebrations, places of interest, cuisine, and a few small instances of incorporating the language (Hindi).

Tiffany Park’s WordPress on New York City, USA is the most different from the rest of the team. The layout she has chosen encourages the reader to be extremely interactive as they have to click on bubbles that have different titles in order to see anything about her location. Like the others, she also has tabs, one of which leads to an about page and the other which leads to ways for the reader to print their passport and stamp. In each section, Park has pictures but the emphasis is on her interactive storytelling style writing, which in combination with the visual allows the readers to imagine Olé’s adventure of the day. Park also includes many hyperlinks to outside sources that could help the reader in their potential physical visit to this location.

Kelley Oorloff’s WordPress on London, England displays a very straight-forward layout, the same as Liedloff, without tabs. Oorloff’s blog is very user friendly as one has to just scroll down and there is no confusion about where to click. She employs pictures with small descriptions of text on London’s places of interest, food, and government. Differentiating from the other blogs, Oorloff is less of a storyteller and focuses more on concise educational facts for the reader, though she also adds in personal tidbits that remind the reader that Olé was the one experiencing these things and now sharing them with the reader.

Asha Thompson’s WordPress on Dublin, Ireland is a layout with a list with the inclusion of one tab at the top of the page that allows the reader to go back to the homepage and explore further. Similar to the way that Park presented her blog, Thompson uses a sequential storyteller style to draw in the reader. She employs text, pictures, and video/audio. Thompson incorporates places of interest along with fun facts, cuisine, history, and a bit of language (Gaelic).

Nathalie Vera’s WordPress on Lima, Peru is the same layout as both Oorloff and Liedloff, with a  focus on the blog posts displayed as a list. Vera uses many videos to help her present Lima to the reader but also employs pictures and text, perhaps more so than the other blogs. Though most of Vera’s text is more educational than personal she does incorporate some direct writing with the reader for interactivity. The blog goes into a lot of detail in many aspects of Peru including basic facts (i.e. climate and population), cuisine, pop culture (i.e. music, dance, celebrities), language/slang terms, places of interest, and a cultural/religious celebration.

Lastly, Brianna Barriga-Sardinas’s WordPress on Rome, Italy also uses the same layout as Vera and a few others. She has a small introduction on the sidebar but has no tabs, allowing the focus to be on the list of posts. Barriga-Sardinas mainly uses text and pictures, omitting the use of video unlike many of her team members. She attempts to combine both a personal voice and one that is more formal and educational through her posts, making sure to ask the reader direct questions in order to draw them in. Barriga-Sardinas’s blog covers the subjects of cuisine, basic facts (i.e. size and climate), places of interests, and language (Italian).

The way the blogs overlap in subject, writing style, and layout help to provide connectivity. Most importantly, the many uses of different media on the blogs aid in producing something that is vastly different than a physical book. Though children’s books use text and pictures, they cannot click or tap a word and be transported somewhere else and the pictures are usually drawings/cartoons that represent an actual place. Using a digital form shows the readers what the place looks like in real life and a way to further explore these places with the use of things like hyperlinks. This interactivity hopefully inspires children to continue learning instead of giving up because it seems too educational. In a more extreme fashion, the use of videos really emphasizes the difference between physical and digital. A video is able to show a much more extensive range of something with the addition of sounds (in this case from that actual country) which is something that could not be possible with a traditional physical book. The use of blogs and hyperlinks also allows a lot more information to be presented as well. Children’s books are usually fairly short and though they do emphasize education in some way, there is not as much room to dedicate this amount of detailed educational information. As the websites and uses of computers can be fairly confusing, the group hopes that the child will still complete this activity the same way that they would if they were reading a children’s book, with their parent or guardian. The team also hopes that the extension of information on the blogs is also interesting and exciting enough for the parents/guardians/teachers to learn things as well. In these ways, it is the belief that transforming the re-created story into a digital  form results in gaining on rather than losing something from traditional forms of books.

Though the variety between blogs can be considered exciting, it can also be seen as one of the weaknesses of the projects and possibly be considered something that is lost. As each blog is made by an individual on a more or less individual level, the voices are obviously different. The variety of voices can make it hard to believe that this is all the same character speaking, while in a traditional book it is usually very clear who the speaker is. Perhaps this could be remedied by creating different characters for each location, a band of animal friends from UCSB travelling the world. In the future, this could be something to look into for the group.

Ideally, the group would have had more time and a broader use of resources. Testing the finished project on children to obtain their opinions and check if their goals were actually met or not would be a great thing to try in the future. Studying the long term effects of digital children’s literature versus traditional children’s literature on children would also be advantageous as the team does not wish to have any negative impacts on children's lives.